Abstract

Outlook for November. IV. Illinois: A Sorry Choice

Many Illinois voters who have long been vexed by the actions of their senior Senator Scott Lucas, now majority leader are dissatisfied as they are, they feel they cannot stay away from the polls on November 7 and let Everett Dirksen, the wizard orator from downstate Pekin, slide into Lucas's mahogany chair in Washington. The Democrats are exerting massive efforts to give Lucas a third term, but his defeat would not mean that a great liberal or even a solid Truman Fair Dealer had been lost to the country. On the other hand, a victory for Dirksen would be a calamity, even according to those who have soured on Lucas. For Dirksen is basing his campaign on arguments dear to the isolationist heart of the Chicago Tribune and the "to-hell-with-the-rest-of-the-world" segment of the Republican Party, in and out of Illinois.